Peloton has apologized for its Halloween-themed "Varosha Ride" and pulled the class, according to a report published Friday.
The 15-minute scenic ride, which carried no instructor, was posted to the Halloween collection on Oct. 28. Lena Argiri, Washington correspondent for Greek public broadcaster ERT and Kathimerini, posted the company's answer to the criticism that followed a day later.
Peloton told Kathimerini the class was "an oversight that does not reflect our values," Argiri wrote. The company pledged to strengthen its editorial review process.
Endy Zemenides, executive director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, had said Thursday that the ride made light of a Cypriot city emptied by Turkish troops in 1974.
"Varosha is not a haunted amusement park," he wrote.
.@onepeloton has apologized and removed its Halloween-themed cycling ride featuring Varosha, Cyprus, following criticism from @HellenicLeaders over its use of a site associated with the displacement of thousands of Greek Cypriots, for entertainment purposes. In a statement to… https://t.co/TZBJKkVc84
— Lena Argiri (@lenaargiri) October 30, 2026
Families lived in those buildings before the invasion, he said, and the residents who ran have never been let back in. The emptied homes and hotels "are not Halloween props," the Chicago-based group's director added.
Other scenic classes open with a short narrated introduction, he wrote, and this one had room to say why nobody lives there. He pointed to locations on the Greek Cypriot side of the island as substitutes, among them the Akamas Peninsula, the Troodos Mountains and Paphos.
The company sold the season on the tagline "Too good to ghost," stacking 21 themed workouts into the last 11 days of October. Any workout from the collection counted toward a badge available through Halloween.
A second ride put Varosha in the same rotation as Bran Castle in Romania, a cemetery in Savannah, the Goli Otok prison island, a Colorado mine and a storm at sea, with instructor Bradley Rose narrating all 30 minutes of it.
Famagusta's fenced-off suburb has sat empty for 52 years. The Security Council has passed two resolutions naming it, 550 in 1984 and 789 in 1992, and has called settlement of the district by anyone other than its original residents "inadmissible."
The district is live in the current talks. Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides wants the fenced zone handed to the United Nations, with Famagusta's port opened to direct trade under European Union supervision. Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman confirmed on Oct. 21 that he had turned the package down as unbalanced.
"Why is this being made a trade-off for handing Varosha over to UN administration?" he argued.
Christodoulides has described Erdogan as the "great obstacle" to any deal, saying the Turkish president presses for a settlement shaped outside U.N. channels.
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